Santa is a Stokie! An alternative matchday experience v Wigan. December 12th, 2009.
Santa is a Stokie!
Santa is a Stokie!
Yes, I can say that with as much confidence as I can say that “Abdoulaye Faye does not sleep, he waits” – because it’s a fact. And we have photographic evidence from pitch-side. “How did you get that?” I hear you ask. Well to cut a long story short, it was the Stoketshirts.co.uk Christmas “works do” last Saturday. It wasn’t planned that way, but as some of the more astute of you may have noticed from the matchday programmes, (sorry I mean “magazines”), our humble enterprise has been sponsoring Abdy Faye’s away kit this season – it’s our way of putting something back into the club that is the inspiration for our shirts and other merchandise. Part of that arrangement means that Rob and I can pick a match to attend and enjoy some hospitality in the Waddington Suite as well as a behind the scenes tour of the Brit – hence the exclusive snap of Santa waving from his executive box (reindeer and sleigh parked on the John Smith’s roof, just out of shot).
Apparently Stoke won the World Cup once?!
So it was that we arrived at the untraditionally early hour of 9.15am last Saturday and were shown the sites by Potters legend Terry (TC) Conroy from one or two of the more “privileged” parts of the stadium – the sky boxes, media suite and the hallowed walls of the Home dressing room to name a few. The tour is highly recommended and well worth booking on if you get chance – ours was a record group of 55 people – tribute to Terry Conroy’s unique slant on the day-to-day life of the Brit and the helpfulness of all the club staff as we went round interrupting their matchday routine.
There was even a visitor from foreign shores – a German chap (and Johan Boskamp lookalike) called Kristian who’d flown from New York. This prompted TC to ask if anyone else had travelled far. “Heron Cross!” came the shout from Rob. “Yes the name of Stoke City is really spreading out there”, quipped TC.
- No clues on tactics here.
...or here.
Early present for Abdy.
The icing on the cake was about 30 minutes before kick-off when we went pitch-side to meet and greet the big man (No! Abdy – Not Santa!) as he finished warming up. He presented us with a signed shirt and in a cheeky return of favour, we handed him a “Abdoulaye Faye – Magnifique!” shirt. “For Me?!” he exclaimed in that characteristic voice before hurrying off to get shirted and booted.
